Crunching with a MAC

BarbaricSoul · Jan 20, 2011

I'm considering buying a MAC tower, this one to be exact- http://norfolk.craigslist.org/sys/2168736907.html (never used a MAC, might aswell try it out). I was wondering if it would be any good as a crunching rig as I'm sure my PC will remain my primary computer(which will remain crunching when I'm not gaming). Worth the effort?

[Ion] · Jan 20, 2011

Well, BOINC does run on OS X, and that one won't have any cooling issues. My Macbook got immensely hot (~90c) when crunching, but that's a real tower, so it should be fine

I'd guess PPD would be less-than-excellent, but I really have no idea (only Mac I've ever crunched on was an Intel)

Wrigleyvillain · Jan 20, 2011

No real difference in terms of crunching, though that older G5 really isn't a great buy for this purpose as opposed to an Intel Mac which would be a Xeon. If you have any other uses for it then sure but just as a cruncher I'd steer clear.

[Ion] · Jan 21, 2011

Even an Intel Mac Mini would probably be a better choice for crunching--and even if it was a bit slower, at least it would use far less power.

Wrigleyvillain · Jan 21, 2011

What I actually meant above in my first statement was no real/major difference to BOINC.

[Ion] · Jan 21, 2011

Ahh, I see. I can't provide a PPD estimate for PPC unfortunately, I've had no experience whatsoever with it. Although, from what I've seen in other benchmarks, a pair of 2.x GHZ G5s is about on par with an identically-clocked Conroe chip...

Wrigleyvillain · Jan 21, 2011

^ That's interesting. Dealing with G5s at work over the years they just seem so slow even by C2D standards. But maybe working on that type of data they shine.

[Ion] · Jan 21, 2011

A friend of mine had a 2.5ghz PowerMac G5 w/ 2 dual-core CPUs and it was about on par with my stock-clocked Q6600 in multi-threaded benchmarks

n-ster · Jan 21, 2011

If you wanna try a mac, do yourself a favor and get an intel MAC... especially if you are used to the PC/Windows environment

System Name	Barb's Domain
Processor	i9 10850k 5.1GHz all cores
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Video Card(s)	GTX260 / Intel HD 4000 / nVidia GT310
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System Name	DarkStar
Processor	i5 3570K 4.4Ghz
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Keyboard	Ducky Pro MX Black
Software	Windows 8.1 x64

System Name	Niedersachsen / Ribe / Minsk
Processor	i3 3240 / i7-3520M / 4x Opteron 6376 @ 2.86GHz
Motherboard	BIOSTAR H61M / HP Q77 / Supermicro H8QG7
Cooling	Stock / Stock / 4x 1U G34
Memory	1x8GB / 2x4GB / 4x4GB
Video Card(s)	GTX260 / Intel HD 4000 / nVidia GT310
Storage	80GB Intel SSD / 256GB Intel SSD / 2x 60GB SSD (RAID1)
Display(s)	Dell 3007 + HP 2245w / 12.1" 1366x768 / None
Case	Antec NSK3480 / HP / Supermicro 1U
Audio Device(s)	Onboard
Power Supply	Enermax 500W / HP 130W / Supermicro Gold 1400W
Keyboard	IBM Model M
Software	Windows 7 (Niedersachsen/Ribe) / Linux Mint 17.2 (Minsk)

System Name	DarkStar
Processor	i5 3570K 4.4Ghz
Motherboard	Asrock Z77 Extreme 3
Cooling	Apogee HD White/XSPC Razer blocks
Memory	8GB Samsung Green 1600
Video Card(s)	2 x GTX 670 4GB
Storage	2 x 120GB Samsung 830
Display(s)	27" QNIX
Case	Enthoo Pro
Power Supply	Seasonic Platinum 760
Mouse	Steelseries Sensei
Keyboard	Ducky Pro MX Black
Software	Windows 8.1 x64

Crunching with a MAC

BarbaricSoul

[Ion]

WCG Team Assistant

Wrigleyvillain

PTFO or GTFO

[Ion]

WCG Team Assistant

Wrigleyvillain

PTFO or GTFO

[Ion]

WCG Team Assistant

Wrigleyvillain

PTFO or GTFO

[Ion]

WCG Team Assistant

n-ster

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